BROOKLYN, N.Y. — As soon as Brandon Davies picked up his second foul, 1:37 into Friday night's game, it was obvious that Brigham Young was going to have its hands full against Florida State in the semifinals of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

Sure enough, the Seminoles never trailed en route to an 88-70 rout of the Cougars, but BYU (2-1) could take solace in the fact that Tyler Haws is everything they need him to be, only three games into the season.

Haws, a 6-5 guard, averaged 11.3 points per game as a freshman in 2009-10, then went on a two-year Mormon mission in the Philippines, where his game easily could have accumulated rust.

"I didn't play that much on my mission—maybe once a week," Haws said. "I tried to take it one step at a time when I got back, tried to get my strength in my body back. I feel really comfortable now. We've got to keep getting better—me, individually, and us as a team."

Friday night, even as BYU got buried by a Florida State team that shot 58 percent from the floor, it was easy to see how dangerous the Cougars can be. Haws, who scored 22 points in each of the first two games of the season, against Tennessee State and Georgia State, finished with 23 against the Seminoles, and added nine rebounds, five assists, three steals, and a block.

Most impressively, Haws proved himself to be a threat to score wherever he got the ball. Whether it was catching and shooting, creating his own shot off the dribble, crashing the offensive boards for a putback, or simply going to the hoop for a layup, Haws' comfort level was evident. His shooting style is smooth and true, and he has good enough court vision to spot an open man for a kick-out pass when he gets in trouble.

The inside-out game that Haws can play with Davies should make BYU a dangerous team, and it was too bad for everyone at Barclays Center unaffiliated with Florida State that the 6-9 senior forward's foul trouble precluded them from getting more minutes together.

"There's a lot of really positive things we can take out of this game, as far as finding ourselves," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "I do believe that early in the year, it's going to be difficult to play without Brandon on the floor. The fact that Tyler was able to make really positive offensive plays for us is a real plus. ... We're really pleased and really happy to have Tyler back."

During the 18:03 that Haws and Davies were both on the court, BYU outscored Florida State, 41-38. Obviously, there is no way to know how much of that had to do with the Seminoles taking their foot off the gas after going up by as many as 27 points in the second half, but it certainly is worth noting in a game that was decided by 18 points the other way.

"It's definitely something we're pretty good at going to, and there's a couple of other things I wish we could have done better, especially me personally," said Davies, who scored 19 points with five rebounds in 21 minutes. "When me and Ty are going, it's contagious to the rest of the team, and we all kind of get in the flow of things."

Without Davies, who picked up his second foul with BYU down 2-0, the Cougars did not get in the flow of things. The Cougars' first 11 points all came from Haws, and BYU did not have another player score until Brock Zylstra hit a three-pointer with 10:15 left in the first half.

"I was just trying to be aggressive," Haws said. "We get down 6-0, and everyone's looking for a spark. I tried to give that. At times in this game, we were playing really well together, and we kind of looked like ourselves, but in general, we didn't really look like ourselves."

The Cougars may not have looked like the team they are capable of being, but as Haws continues to put his game together, he and Davies should make BYU a formidable foe—one that Florida State should be glad to have gotten out of the way in November instead of a much bigger game later on in the season.